Tim Bradley says Terence Crawford will be considered the “best fighter on planet Earth” if he wins against Canelo Alvarez on September 13th in their potential Riyadh Season clash.
Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) will be moving up two divisions to fight in a weight class that he’s never fought at before and will probably never fight again, win or lose, against Canelo. If Terence were to win, you still couldn’t say he’s better than David Benavidez, David Morrell, or Diego Pacheco.
Too Small, Too Late?
There’s too much size, power, and youth from those guys for an aging switch-hitter like Crawford to defeat them. Beating Canelo would only prove that Terence is better than the 34-year-old Mexican star, but not that he’s the “best” on the planet. The chances of Crawford are slim, though, because he’s a smaller, weaker version of Jermell Charlo.
When Jermell moved up to 168 to fight Canelo in 2023, many fans believed he’d be too good for the Mexican star. But as soon as he felt Canelo’s power, he wanted no part of fighting him, and moved all night. Crawford will do the same because this fight is his retirement payday.
“This is a fight for Crawford to show the entire world that he’s the best fighter on the planet,” said Tim Bradley to Fighthype about Terence Crawford’s fight against 34-year-old Canelo Alvarez on September 13th. “After this, there should be no question, and that’s what he wants. He’s willing to take that risk so that there’s no question who the best fighter is on planet Earth, and he truly believes that with all his heart,” said Bradley about Crawford.
“If he gets this win, it’s huge. I don’t think there’s ever been anybody who came up from 135 all the way to 168 lbs and is the best guy out there. This will be uncharted territory for this sport.
“Where that ranks at, I don’t know, but Terence Crawford would be considered one of the best fighters on the planet Earth if he gets this win. In this generation at least, but as far as overall, I don’t know. I’ll let the fans decide that,” said Bradley.
Boring is Back
If Crawford wins this fight, it will be by him following the Mayweather blueprint by boxing Canelo, moving, jabbing, and holding all night. He’ll have to play it safe to win, and that’s going to be boring for the fans. Fighting like Mayweather did against Canelo in 2013 will anger many fans, making them feel stupid for having thought the fight was going to be exciting.
Many of them have never seen Crawford fight and will get caught up in the hype without watching six or seven of his last fights. I’ve been following Crawford his entire career, and he’s always had a dull style, just a little more entertaining than Shakur Stevenson. He’s a slightly more offensive version of Shakur. He’s not exciting like the top 154-pounders, and he’s nowhere near as enjoyable to watch as a prime Errol Spence before his car crash.
“This is a fight that I feel everybody is going to tune in and watch. I think the casuals are going to tune in as well. Canelo attracts the casuals in general, but with having that name, Bud Crawford, I think everybody is going to tune in because of him. They want to see if he can be great. Bud is going to give you everything. Win, lose, or draw, he’s going to give you everything,” said Bradley.
Casual fans will tune in due to the hype and the huge marketing push from Turki Al-Sheikh, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to enjoy the product. Fans in the U.S. prefer action fights, and they like watching cat-and-mouse affairs where one guy is chasing a runner all over creation. The casual fans who buy this event on PPV will be disappointed in the Canelo-Crawford fight. But what might save the day is if Turki loads up the undercard fight better fights involving younger fighters with entertaining styles. That’ll partially make up for the dull main event between Crawford and Canelo.
“For me, there’s been a couple of blueprints out there on how to beat Canelo,” said Bradley. There has. Way back when he was younger and when he went up to 175, when he tested the waters up there and he fought Bivol. There’s a way about how to bet him. Canelo is going to have to create a way to beat Crawford, and it’s not going to be with pure pressure.”
There’s only one blueprint on how to beat Canelo, and that’s the Mayweather one. Dmitry Bivol followed the Mayweather blueprint in his win over Canelo. The only other fighter that gave Canelo problems was Gennadiy Golovkin, but he did it with power punching. Crawford isn’t capable of doing that because he’s not as strong, rugged or as big as GGG was during his first two fights with Alvarez.
“He’s going to have to outthink him. He’s going to have to outwork him, and he’s going to have to outmuscle him. It’s going to have to be a combination of everything to beat Crawford,” said Bradley.
Back to Earth
Tim is going a bit overboard, saying Canelo-Crawford is going to decide who the “best fighter on the planet” is because that’s not what this fight is going to decide. This is just a novelty fight, no different than if Canelo were to fight Jake Paul. The only difference is fewer fans will watch this fight. There would have been way more if Canelo had fought Jake.
Both of these guys are as old as the hills, fading and looking average in their last fights. Crawford will be 38 in September, and he almost lost his last fight to Israil Madrimov on August 3rd. Canelo looked hellishly bad in his last fight against the lowly Edgar Berlanga on September 14th, gassing out after four rounds.
Last Updated on 02/12/2025
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